18 comments:

I love this clip. But I just showed it to my 13-year-old and he didn't get it. Somehow I feel like I'm failing in his cultural education. He has all the Monty Python references but doesn't get Randy Normal Jeans.

"Does the Professor wear jeans? Is there a dress code for your classes? Inquiring minds want to know."

I have worn jeans to class, though nearly always black jeans, not blue. In the last few years, I've worn almost only skirts (long and short), but occasionally I wear pants (not jeans). I think it looks better for an older woman to wear skirts. And I have an Armani pantsuit, bought just before I realized this. I never wear it!

There is no dress code though. The younger profs are more likely to dress in a professional, lawyer style at my law school. It's the baby boomer males who might still wear jeans.

Monty Python is a different type of humor that kind of beats you over the head with a joke until you must get it. You can't possibly ask why is that supposed to be funny. They sell it until you can't take it anymore.

There were references to "The Life of Brian" in the comments yesterday, and I've had that as a DVD for over a decade but have still never watched it, though I've enjoyed the isolated clips. I saw "The Holy Grail" when it came out and sat through it because I was in the theater, but I did not enjoy the experience (even though I loved the original PBS airings of the TV show). It was too much, too heavy handed.

It's a matter of taste and what gives pleasure more than getting it.

You might want to ask whether he's saying he doesn't even see why other people find it funny or whether it just isn't the kind of thing that appeals to him.

I would avoid encouraging him to laugh along as a social thing to prove that he "gets" it.

The issue is enjoyment, and people shouldn't confuse their own enjoyment with understanding how other people enjoy themselves.

At the movies, I find that I am a laugh leader. That is, I see humor and laugh when no one else does (because I understand the dialogue and it's written to be funny). Then other people laugh because I laugh, like they're just trying to send the message that they get it too! It's kind of pathetic. It only makes me feel that they are, in addition to dumb, unspontaneous.

I was conducting business at a bank that is not my own the other day, and I was startled to notice the dress and appearance of the three tellers on duty. #1 was a woman, significantly overweight, wearing shapeless black knit pants and a striped knit shirt. No makeup, and hair in a lank ponytail on her neck. #2 was a young man, wearing a striped henley-type top, baggy blue jeans and hiking boots. #3 was my favorite--gym shoes, blue jeans, an orange polo shirt and strutting around behind the counter eating an apple. I guess "dressing like a banker" doesn't mean "dressing like a banker" anymore and "professional deportment" doesn't mean "eat in the breakroom on your break" anymore.

I was conducting business at a bank that is not my own the other day, and I was startled to notice the dress and appearance of the three tellers on duty. #1 was a woman, significantly overweight, wearing shapeless black knit pants and a striped knit shirt. No makeup, and hair in a lank ponytail on her neck. #2 was a young man, wearing a striped henley-type top, baggy blue jeans and hiking boots. #3 was my favorite--gym shoes, blue jeans, an orange polo shirt and strutting around behind the counter eating an apple. I guess "dressing like a banker" doesn't mean "dressing like a banker" anymore and "professional deportment" doesn't mean "eat in the breakroom on your break" anymore.

Was it in a branch in its own building or a counter in a supermarket or something?

I've noticed people in branches seem to dress better than ones on outpost duty.

Just personal anecdotal experience:I use a couple different banks. One, a major branch, has a strict dress code. Every man is in a suit and tie, and women mostly in nice conservative dresses. I also use a competitor across the street, a small cramped room in a super market where they dress much less formal.

My impression is that the more formal branch is full people who know very little about their job, or can answer even the simplest banking questions correctly.

Across the street, the less well-dressed in the crucible next to the shopping carts are much more professional, and competent in what they actually do for me.

I like people to look professional too, but I'm seeing this more and more where people are trying to compensate for lack of ability with window dressing. Substituting dress, titles, manners, and simplistic ideas of salesmanship for core ability and intelligence. They find people who are very compliant, teach them to follow company policy blindly, and that they don't have to, nor are expected to think or improvise. It's an attempt to get back to an earlier time when people were better educated for the jobs they do, and people learned it before they were promoted, but it's only the appearance of that. It will fool you if you don't judge more carefully. Don't fall for that perfect pants crease again.

For years I would not allow jeans or T-shirts for my pastoral staff unless it fit what they were doing that day (if the youth pastor had a teenb function etc). Gave up on it about two years ago. When I was back east I wore coat and tie every day. Moved to Kansas 18 years ago and did like wise. A few years here and my wife came home from the hospital and told me compared to other pastors she saw visiting the hospital I was very over dressed. So I dressed more like Friday casual. Still don't do jeans for work. I have observed that I am treated much better by hospital staff when I wear a coat and tie.